YES Trainees an update

An update from our YES Trainees

After their flying start in the spring, our YES trainees, Rhona and Saul, have been working hard over the last four months.

As YES trainees, they work 21 hours a week, alongside a variety of Green Team staff. Now half way through their traineeship, both are having unique experiences helping support the YES programme delivery, as well as our regular programmes.

• Leading and supporting outdoor sessions with young people aged 11–25
• Planning and delivering practical nature conservation and rewilding projects
• Group facilitation, event support, and nature-based leadership
• Championing youth voices and action for the environment

We caught up with Rhona and Saul to see how it was going.

An update from Rhona

Rhona has helped support our programmes in so many ways, including as photographer and videographer.

Her ability to capture the essence and impact of The Green Team’s nature connection in different environments has been invaluable.

She shares a little more about the programmes, places and experiences she’s enjoyed the most,

‘I have really enjoyed the Advanced Skylarks programme, as I felt like I got a lot more confident helping the young people with cooking and leading games. It was lovely to see the participants bonding after coming from different schools.’

‘My favourite wild place so far would be Sauchie Home Farm and being up at the fire hut with Changemakers and Advanced Skylarks on residential.’

‘My favourite activity so far would be the Council of All Beings with Changemakers.’

An update from Saul

YES Trainee, Saul, has also worked on Changemakers as well as supporting our Green Shoots referral, Forest School and Thrive programmes. His highlights so far include:

‘New experiences and a friendly welcome at the start. I’ve enjoyed getting to know everyone and hearing about different staff roles and different groups of young people. Also travelling to new places!

‘Key things I’ve learned include problem solving skills, a bit around communication with young people and how we talk to them, eg being positive and supportive. I thrive with encouragement and so I understand how that feels. It’s motivating.’

Saul is also getting a lot from all the training,

‘I’m learning outdoor skills – health and safety of tasks, risk and risk assessments. Being responsible makes you pay attention to things. I feel safer outside, more confident and have more skills that I can take forward. My decision making and planning has got better.

‘Safe guarding training was very helpful and interesting. Setting me up for what was coming and helping me understand my role better. First Aid was also really good.’

‘Neurodivergence training was a good recap. Did know some of it already but good to recap. Terms keep changing so good to stay up to date with changes.’

Saul enjoys learning on the job,

‘I’ve really enjoyed working on Green Shoots with Kate. I would have loved to have done this when I was young, it would have changed my perspective on the different kind of jobs eg nature jobs. I thought it was all academic. I didn’t have the best time in school. Bad ADHD and doing exams online because of Covid wasn’t great.

‘I’ve enjoyed bringing the prog to the kids in school and seeing what support they have. It’s crazy! Also on Changemakers, the kids are so knowledgeable and I love chatting with them… I enjoy learning from them, it’s so cool.’

Best experience so far?

‘The Changemakers residential was the best! The Council of All Beings with masks! Everyone cooking, breakfast and chat and excitement.’

Thank you, Rhona and Saul, we look forward to catching up again soon, to share more of your experiences and insights as YES Trainees.